In November 2014, former Southeast CDC neighborhood organizer, Agatha So, received a fellowship from Open Society Institute – Baltimore Community Fellows Program. Prior to becoming a fellow, she met a number of established Latino families interested in buying their first home and experienced barriers to achieving this dream. In her 18 months as a fellow, Agatha will identify and develop pathways to homeownership for low to moderate income Latino families in Southeast Baltimore. Southeast CDC is the host organization to the project, called Pathways to Homeownership.
Among the barriers immigrants face when seeking homeownership are a lack of access to credit building and mortgage lending opportunities, as well as fiscal policies that have tightened credit standards since the height of the financial crisis and passage of Dodd-Frank legislation. In Baltimore, mortgage loan products for borrowers using an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) have not been available to a growing number of ITIN holding immigrants in the city since 2007.
To this end, the Southeast CDC supports a multi-pathway approach to meeting the economically and culturally diverse needs of Latino borrowers. The following pathways are being explored by Agatha So, OSI Fellow, in partnership with the Southeast CDC and through the support of an independent advisory board
To find out more information, please follow the links below:
Immigrant Homeownership & Pathways to Homeownership (English)
Immigrant Homeownership & Pathways to Homeownership (Spanish)
Residential Mortgage Loans for Tax-Paying Immigrants (English)
Residential Mortgage Loans for Tax-Paying Immigrants (Spanish)
Pathways to Homeownership Video
Presentation: The Untapped Mortgage Market